February 2021 Goals

Reviewing January 2021 goals and setting new goals for February 2021

Welcome back to my monthly goals post! Every month I dress up my dog for cute pictures, review my goals from the past month, and set new goals for the next month! I set a lot of ambitious goals, and they all build on my annual goals and core values. This month I dressed Ryder up in a cute vintage Valentine setting, and am excited to build on the progress I set in January!

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January Goals

Quick reminder — for this year I’m linking my goals to core values (Creativity, Adventure, Curiosity, and Community), and grouping goals by category under each core value. I set a lot of goals — probably too many — but I also treat goals as aspirational, and I just like to track how much I do or don’t do in a year, quarter, or month. I strongly encourage you to do what works for you! If you want to set a gazillion goals and trackers, go for it! If you want to just set one goal a month, that’s awesome! If you just want to follow along with my blog, you’re welcome to do that too! I just like to (over)share, so I hope you enjoy it and get some ideas!

Creativity

Writing

Write 1 short story or poem. I did this! Some of my writing group friends and I are trying out our pens at flash fiction horror. That genre is a big stretch for me and it’s especially hard trying to keep a piece under 1,000 words, but it’s been fun to play with it!

Write 5,000 words for a novel. Honestly? I added zero words to this. Mostly because I got distracted by the short story and focused on drafting and editing that. I’d suspected this might be the case, but it’s worth having data to prove that I don’t really have bandwidth for short stories AND novel writing simultaneously. Good to know for future goal-setting…

Write 40 pages in personal journals. Check! I wrote 47 pages!

Show up for a writers’ group. Yes! I’ve got a writer’s group meeting regularly for 2021 — all virtually of course — but it’s been so helpful to chat and have some accountability and share our works in progress!

Write a blog post. I published 6 posts! Go me!

Art

Share January bullet journal Plan With Me video and printables. Create February bullet journal Plan With Me video and printables. Yay! January’s Plan With Me video and printables are up! And I recently shared my February Plan With Me video and printables!

Sign up for an online class. I signed up for a watercolor e-course from Shayda Campbell! I have really enjoyed Shayda’s bullet journal and art tutorial videos on YouTube and so far I’ve enjoyed the watercolor course. It starts with the very basics but she presents the information succinctly so it’s not boring and you can pick and choose the short videos you want to view.

Type up and edit Stella’s story. I haven’t done this yet, but it’s still on my list of things to do.

Adventure

Running

Run 70 miles. Whoo I exceeded this goal! In January I ran 106 miles!

Create race calendar, annual training outline, and quarterly training plan. I’ve got my race calendar penciled in and my training plan outline. I’m the type of person who likes to dynamically change my training plan based on past performances and listening to my body, but it’s good to have an outline to work with.

Attempt South Mountains Marathons 50K. Success! I was really worried about this because I had COVID in late November/early December and that annihilated my peak training for this race. Mother Nature helped me out though and sent in a snowstorm the day of the race, so it was postponed from the beginning of January to the end of January. It gave me a few weeks to get back into running (not enough to do any peak training, but enough to at least go from couch to 15 miler, lol). I was still worried about my fitness and preparation leading up to the race, and I certainly struggled a lot on the course with untrained legs and some very unhappy lungs, but I just took it slower and successfully completed the race! I’ll have a race report up later with info on how the race director nicely adapted the race for COVID precautions and my thoughts on the course.

Climbing

Climb or hangboard twice a week. I actually didn’t climb much at all in January. It’s cold. I’m wary of the climbing gym. And I was trying to get back into running. BUT I did buy a pull-up bar! I’ve been struggling a lot with getting started with the hangboard, and I think it’s just a little bit too hard for me right now. So instead I’m focusing on dead hangs and pull-ups with the pull-up bar!

Hiking/Exploring/Travel

Complete 4 hikes/trail runs! Yeah! I exceeded this — I did 6 hikes in January! I explored Umstead State Park a few times on the bridle trail loop, Company Mill, and Sycamore Trail, and I also explored Horton Grove and South Mountains State Park!

Plan out some adventure weekends. I’ve got a few dates penciled in on my calendar, but need to do more planning.

Yoga

Practice yoga once a week. I did this! Heck, I exceeded this by doing a 30 day yoga journey! (Granted, I’m still in the middle of it since I started late, but still!)

Try out two yoga studios (zoom/online). Well, I tried out a yoga studio the last day of December 2020 via Zoom, but I’m really hesitant to go to a new (to me) yoga studio in person right now. But doing Yoga with Adriene online has been really helpful!

Mountain Biking

Note: I’m not setting any mountain bike goals for January since it tends to be rainy and wet and the trails are closed. I’ll start setting some goals for the mountain bike in the spring, but wanted to keep this placeholder so I don’t forget.

Strength Training

Strength train once a week. Bleargh. Nope, I didn’t do this. But I did buy some kettlebells and dumbbells that are the appropriate weight for me so I can get started on this!

Curiosity

Languages

Work on Spanish x10 days on DuoLingo. Eeek I didn’t hit this goal. I only worked on Spanish once in January 🤦‍♀️

Reading

Read 2 books. I completed one book in January! I read The Power of Vulnerability* by Brené Brown. I read Dr. Brown’s Braving the Wilderness* in December, and I’ve really enjoyed her work. If you haven’t yet read her stuff, I recommend it! I didn’t finish a second book because…well…apparently I have 10 books in progress right now 🤦‍♀️ Yeah, I’m trying to fix that…

Read the Trail Runner magazine that just arrived and a New Yorker. I read half of the Trail Runner magazine, does that count? (Answer: NO)

Craft

Start planning the garden. I did not get this done. I need to catch up in February if I want a garden ready for early spring.

Community

Read 1 book on social justice. Engage in a conversation. I am currently reading So You Want to Talk About Race* by Ijeoma Oluo and am about halfway through it. It’s been an excellent book so far, I definitely recommend it. I also engaged in some local social justice discussions and participated in a DEI workshop.

Build the Triangle Area Womxn’s Trail/Ultra community. In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a Facebook group dedicated to Triangle Womxn who run trails/ultras! It’s been great to see local womxn link up for long runs, share pics and stories from their runs, chat about favorite races, and support each other!

Build the NC Oiselle Volée community. Plan and coordinate ideas for the year with the other NC leaders. I was very recently added as an NC Oiselle Volée leader and I’m super excited to contribute to that community of womxn! We’re already off to a strong start!

Work on the ultra running coaching class! I haven’t been going through this as quickly as I’d like, but I’ve completed two modules so far.

February Goals

February is actually a big month for me! I’m starting a new job! I’ve been at my old company for over eight years, but it seemed like a good time to switch things up and try something new! So I’m still going to set a lot of goals, but I anticipate there will be some disruption in my life during this transition.

Creativity

Writing

Revise the short story and submit it. I wrote a short story in January (horror! No really, it’s a horror genre story!) and I’d like to do a few revisions to it and submit it to a writing competition.

Write 5,000 words for a novel. I wasn’t able to write both a short story and work on the novel in January, but let’s see if I can revise the short story and add to the novel in the same month.

Write 40 pages in personal journals. I exceeded this in January, let’s see if I can maintain this goal.

Support my writers’ group. I’m in a writers’ group that’s meeting consistently (virtually) so far, and I’m excited to keep this up!

Write 8 blog posts. I really want to get into a better habit of posting consistently on the blog. Ideally the schedule is this:

• Monday: Blog post

• Tuesday: Blog post

• Wednesday: email newsletter

• Friday: Optional Fast Fave Fri-yay blog post

• Saturday/Sunday: Sneak peek posts on IG stories

I say this partly for accountability and partly because I know it’s maddening to me whenever I have to figure out a media outlet’s posting schedule. So maybe if I put this in writing I’ll stick to it? (Questionable, we’ll see.)

Art

Create and share March bullet journal Plan With Me video and printables. My February Plan With Me video and printables are posted, and I’d like to get my March posts up before the start of the month next time! I also want to share some art tutorials and tips for productivity and goal-setting more consistently on my @lizgdraws Instagram account.

Make a mask. It’s pandemic arts & crafts time!

Complete 10 modules of Shayda Campbell’s watercolor e-course. I signed up for a watercolor e-course from Shayda Campbell and so far I’ve completed 10 modules. I’d like to complete another 10 modules in February.

Type up and edit Stella’s story. Need to do this!

Adventure

Running

Run 100 miles. I’m taking a week or two to recover from the South Mountains 50K and then it’s base-building time for my 100 miler!

Volunteer at Uwharrie. I’m signed up to volunteer! (And actually, by the time this goes live I will have volunteered already!)

Go on a run-venture at Raven Rock. Raven Rock State Park is a solid choice for a winter trail long run and base-building since it’s rolling terrain and there aren’t many bugs by the river in winter.

Climbing

Climb once a week. I’m still wary of the climbing gym, but they’re usually pretty quiet first thing in the morning at 7am or so.

Do 3 (banded) pull-ups every day. I want to do at least 3 pull-ups (with the red band) every day.

Hiking/Exploring/Travel

Complete 4 hikes/trail runs! So far we’re ahead of schedule for the 52 Hike Challenge!

Plan Grayson Highlands run-venture. The game plan right now is to do a self-supported run-venture in Grayson Highlands this spring!

Plan backpacking weekend with Emily. My best friend and I were talking about getting away for an easy backpacking weekend this spring!

Yoga

Finish the Yoga with Adriene 30 day yoga journey and keep yoga streak going through Feb 14. I started this late in January, so I’ve still got a few more days to catch up on! Plus I want to extend it a little longer for the NC Oiselle Volée #runlove challenge that I’m doing with Kandace!

Practice yoga twice a week. After I finish the 30 day yoga journey I want to keep up my yoga practice!

Mountain Biking

Note: I’m not setting any mountain bike goals for February since it tends to be rainy and wet and the trails are closed. I’ll start setting some goals for the mountain bike in the spring, but wanted to keep this placeholder so I don’t forget.

Strength Training

Strength train once a week. I’ve got the proper weights now. I just need to do it!

Curiosity

Languages

Work on Spanish x10 days on DuoLingo. It’s not hard and I rather enjoy doing this as one part of my wind-down routine. I just need to get back into the habit!

Reading

Read 2 books. Oof, let’s see if I can do this. Right now I’m in the middle of 10 books (yes, I know, my attention span is terrible right now) and they’re all several hundred pages long (hence why I keep picking up new books). I really should just settle down and finish the books I’m reading and not start anything new! #IHaveNoDiscipline #OohShinyNewBook!

Read all my Trail Runner magazines that are lying around. Did I count how many issues are lying around before I committed to this? No. But I really ought to clean up a bit.

Craft

Planning the spring garden and start some seeds! I better not dawdle or I’ll start the beginning of our outdoor growing season!

Community

Read 1 book on social justice. I’m halfway through So You Want to Talk About Race* by Ijeoma Oluo and I’d like to finish that this month!

Build the Triangle Area Womxn’s Trail/Ultra community. Organize a run-venture/run-together-but-separate long run. Right now in this era of quarantine I want to make sure I’m primarily supporting my community virtually. But I’ve also had positive experience with a “run in the same area but not necessarily together” sort of meet-up with some local trail long runs. Essentially this looks like self-supported runs and maybe you run solo or in pairs on the trails, but you know there are other people at other paces running in your general vicinity. I like this approach and hope we can do another self-supported run-together-but-separate sort of trail runs.

Build the NC Oiselle Volée community. Participate in the podcast club and Instagram challenges. I am so excited about a podcast club that one of my fellow NC Oiselle Volée leaders is organizing! This month we’re talking with the talented Rebecca Mehra!

Complete 3 modules for the ultra running coaching class. I’d like to dedicate some more time to this and make progress on this class!

Summary

It’s bittersweet moving on to a new job this month, but I’m excited for new opportunities and growth! On to the next adventure!

What about you? Did you set any goals for February 2021?